LL, don't mean to doubt your faith, but is there any reason beyond that (faith) to think that this will be a decent, Portzamparc-designed building? After all, NY developers are a bunch of stingy, destructive bastards; and the only name publicly affiliated with this buildings is Costas', right?

It just seems like it would make so much unfortunate sense for yet another row of classy Midtown buildings to fall to a cheap, pre-fab POS put up by Extell/Related/Macklowe/Moinian/Tishman/whatever other members of the cabal of profit-driven developers are out there.

August 11th, 2009, 06:58 AM

londonlawyer

It's on de Portzamparc's website. Also, Extell spent a lot of money assembling this site. Gershon knows that this site on 57th Street warrants a world-class tower. We will have to wait and see what happens.

Priztker Prize winning, Paris-based architect and urbanist, Christian de Portzamparc, Hon. FAIA, will lecture on his portfolio of completed and current work and his vision of the city with specific regard to his involvement in the "Grand Paris" challenge.
With his team of 100 collaborators, he currently has underway the redesigning of Rue de la loi, the adminstrative heart of Europe (Brussels, Belgium), a performing arts center in Rio de Janiero, the largest theater in Africa (Casablanca, Morocco), the headquarters for the top developer in France (Bouygues Immobilier) and an entire neighborhood in Paris (Massena Paris Left Bank). He also recently completed a new office tower in Paris la Defense, the Hergé Museum (Tintin’s author) in Belgium, and a new Concert hall in Luxemburg.

In New York, after the New York City Opera proposal (2004- canceled or stopped or interrupted in 2006), three large private tower projects are soon to see the light of day…

There’s a rule of thumb that applies to the city’s Landmarks Preservation Commission: The agency shouldn’t try to designate a building a landmark against its owner’s will unless the commission’s ready for a loud public skirmish. And, generally in the Bloomberg administration, the commission has steered clear of such battles, making for relatively few such messy designation attempts.

So in July, it came as something of a surprise when the LPC took the confrontational action of starting the designation process—an act known as “calendaring”—on a pair of connected buildings at Broadway and West 57th Street owned by Extell Development, one of the city’s most active developers ...

October 8th, 2009, 11:13 AM

londonlawyer

Landmarking this would be a disaster, as it would crush this project. The building on Broadway that housed the liquor store is quite nice, and Extell's offer to save that is a good one. However, the building on 57th is nothing special. I am really sick on the absurdity in NY. These jerks should be lining up to save the stunning building on 57th that will be razed for a crap hotel by Cetra Ruddy. Moreover, where were the bastards when the 56th Street townhouses, The Drake, etc. were razed? Are New Yorkers simply fixated on having the city look like crap.

October 8th, 2009, 02:03 PM

Derek2k3

Of all the battles to fight a developer. Where were they for the Drake.

Sadly, no demolition permits have been filed for the dumpy (and now empty) building that formerly housed Landmark HS (i.e., 220 W 58th Street).

By the way, is that crappy Morton Williams still open? I used to go there when I lived nearby, and it's a rip-off. In a city with socialized housing, NY needs socialized food coops. All of the ragged-looking old people in there looked as though they spent nearly all of their discretionary income on overpriced fod such as $6 boxes of cereal that sell for $3 in the rest of the US.

October 12th, 2009, 01:53 AM

NoyokA

The sad thing is Morton Williams is the cheapest supermarket in 90% of Manhattan, there are only a handful of Met foods, C-Towns, etc. I used to live a block away from Gristedes and D'Agostino's and would walk 6 blocks to shop at Morton Williams.

October 12th, 2009, 02:04 AM

londonlawyer

It would be a good idea if when the city sold former schools for redevelopment, they demand that the developer include a supermarket with a subsidized lease in the new project so that all of the old people in the city can pay a reasonable price for food. Although the new building that will rise at 250 East 57th will have a Whole Foods, that's still ridiculously expensive.